Public art advisory committee backs bylaw change to add University of Iowa ex officio seat

The Iowa City Public Art Advisory Committee approved a proposed bylaw amendment to add a University of Iowa ex officio seat to the committee and will forward the change to the city council rules committee for consideration.

Staff presented a draft amendment that would adjust committee composition to nine members: six appointed by city council (at least two of whom must be art or design professionals), three ex officio members including a University of Iowa appointee with responsibility for campus public art and one staff representative each from public works and parks and recreation. "The public art advisory committee shall consist of 9 members, 6 of whom shall be appointed by the city council," staff read for the record.

Committee members debated whether the university seat should be voting or nonvoting and how to preserve balance between at-large community members and design professionals. One member voiced concern about influence: "...making sure there's not kind of an outsized imbalance of influence on that person," and other members responded that the university representative would be one vote among nine and that recusal rules exist to address conflicts.

The committee voted to approve the amendment for referral; staff said the change will go to the rules committee and then to the city council for final action. Speaker 6 noted the city attorney review and those subsequent approvals will be required before a university appointee would take the seat.

Next steps: the committee’s approval sends the bylaw amendment to the council rules committee, then to full city council for final approval; once the seat is available the university will be asked to provide an appointee.